HD 598 Sound card or DAC?

[Woot97]

Ok, so basically i'm very new to this type of thing and really need advice.
I currently am using the HD 598 which sound awesome but i'm using them with my old 363D G4ME1 dongle that outputs 7.1 which I like in games. My motherboard supposedly has very good audio which also allows 7.1 (Asus Ranger Vii) but if I plug my headphones in the jack it sounds terrible and i'd much rather switch to the stereo on my G4ME1 dongle. So basically I need advice on wether or not to get a sound card or a DAC+Amp combo.

The stereo sound is on my HD 598's just sounds so bad and i'm used to surround sound and have been looking at maybe the Xonar DS?

Any beginner DAC/Amp or sound card suggestions would be awesome, thanks!

 

[A12MO12]

schiit magni/modi amp+dac combo is a great option for external units.

soundcards then Creative Soundblaster ZxR (expensive rather get amp/dac), Xonar Essence STX, Creative Soundblaster Z (cheaper then ZxR)

 

[ssddx]

sounds terrible? that is not descriptive. if you want actual advice on how to make it sound good you need to say WHAT you dont like about the onboard vs the cheap dongle. without a descriptive answer there is only so much we can say besides generic advice.

afaik all the asus motherboards use dolby headphone based virtual surround. i'm pretty sure the g4me one and pc363d dongles use thes ame dolby headphone processing so they should sound pretty much the same with virtual turned on at least from a virtual surround processing perspective (the cards could sound different for other reasons).

get the xonar dx. same dac chip as the essence, half the cost. what it does not have is a powerful amp like the essence but for the price, its a good card. even without a strong amp it should be fine for the hd598 which are not hard to drive.

the amp in the z is a bit overkill for the hd598 and you would be running on low system volume levels. good card, but thought i'd note that.

or, if you're cheap... even the xonar dg at $27 has dolby headphone built in. however your motherboard should have it built in as well... so this isnt much of an upgrade from that unless you're getting buzzing/other noises from your board.

schiit magni modi combo is completely overkill for the hd598. a fiio unit would be sufficient. keep in mind if you used an external dac/amp combo you will NOT have access to virtual surround and will have stereo sound only. since you want virtual surround you DONT want an external dac/amp.